


If We Were a Movie

by busaikko



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Kid Fic, Multi, Threesome, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-04
Updated: 2010-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-12 10:28:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/123911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/busaikko/pseuds/busaikko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jennifer and Rodney don't want to take the next step in their relationship without John, which is perhaps not the best conversation to have while babysitting Madison.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If We Were a Movie

> If we were a movie, you'd be the right guy  
> And I'd be the best friend that you fell in love with  
> Hannah Montana

Rodney decides to spend his two weeks off in Vancouver. "It's not that I don't want to see your dad again," he tells Jennifer, looking so sincerely distraught that she knows he probably practiced this speech. "I do. But Jeannie's pregnant and I _owe_ her, and Kaleb hates me but I already sent them airline tickets and offered to babysit."

"That's so sweet of you," Jennifer says, and puts her arm around Rodney's waist, tugging him close. "You should take John. He, um, needs a break."

She bites her tongue, but it's too late to bring the words back. She shouldn't have said anything; six-month physical evaluations just ended, so Rodney will think she's hinting about John's health. But Rodney doesn't say anything, just nods thoughtfully before turning to steal a kiss.

Rodney keeps Jennifer updated on what an awesome uncle he is. She shares the stories and the pictures with her dad, who tells her he loves her dearly but she should go be with her boyfriend. "Maybe you'll change your mind about kids," he teases, and she says _Daddy_ , scrunching up her nose, and goes to call the travel agent.

She decides to surprise Rodney, taking a cab to Jeannie's from the airport. When she rings the bell, John answers, and he looks happy to see her.

"Rodney went over to the university, there's a. . . thing," John says, apologetic. "Some people he needs to lord his success over. I'll text him," he offers, but Jennifer says it's fine, no problem.

Then Madison wanders in, wearing a slinky purple polyester robe over her corduroy jeans, and shouts, "Auntie Jennifer." She gloms onto Jennifer, talking a mile a minute, and somehow an hour later Jennifer and Madison and John all have matching sparkly lip gloss and nail polish and are raiding the kitchen for unhealthy snacks, while Hannah Montana plays on the boombox.

"I know Rodney hid them in here," John is saying, sipping his beer through a bendy straw because Madison insisted, crouching down in the pantry to look behind the canisters of whole grains. "Or hey, check the freezer."

That's when Rodney walks in from the garage door; Jennifer still can't wrap her head around the idea of silent, electric cars that don't give you any warning. They seem too sci-fi, and she ought to know.

"Hi," she says, and waves, fluttering her fingers nervously because she's never done anything this impulsive, and maybe, maybe he won't want her here.

But Rodney just grins wide and gives her a kiss loud enough to make Madison go _eww_ and stomp out to the living room. Jennifer kisses back, and then sees John, standing trapped in the pantry doorway, trying to wipe the lipgloss off on the back of his hand, looking angry and embarrassed and as miserable as she's ever seen him.

"John," she says, meaning to make it a question, but it comes out sounding like a warning. John flinches; Rodney turns around.

"That's a new look for you," Rodney says, not reading the emotional currents at all -- either that, or deciding avoidance is best. "Glitter, huh."

"I used to wear this stuff in the eighties," John says, flashing his fingernails self-mockingly. "It was a thing the gay kids did at school."

"I think gay fashion has changed since then," Rodney says, thoughtfully. "Were you trying to steal my Doritos?"

" _Yes_ ," John says, and Jennifer's heart just breaks for him. "I'm going to go check my e-mail."

"Stay," Jennifer says, and pinches Rodney's arm through his shirt. They've _talked_ about this, and Rodney's always insisted that the status quo was fine and that boats shouldn't be rocked and that John would say no. "Please stay." She gives Rodney a look; she wishes she had psychic powers round about now.

"What Jennifer means," Rodney says, and he's using his trying-really-hard voice. John's expression goes completely opaque. "Is that she and I have been talking. About dating you. The three of us."

John's already shaking his head. "That's sweet. But I'm not interested."

"You should be with people who love you," Jennifer says.

John shrugs. "You don't need me." He says it flat, like it's a fact, as obvious as the sun rising in the east.

Rodney snaps. He flings his arms up with an angry _Oh, for fuck's sake_ and crosses the room. He grabs John by the front of his shirt and kisses him hard, walking John backwards until his back is to the wall. John puts a hand against Rodney's shoulder, as if he were about to push him away. John doesn't push -- Jennifer's pretty sure he's kissing back -- but Rodney jerks back anyway, glaring.

"You _infuriate_ me," Rodney says. He stalks out, pausing only long enough to pull a jumbo-sized bag of chips out from under the sink and throw it at John's head. John doesn't even try to catch it. Rodney doesn't stick around long enough to watch it smack John in the forehead.

Madison appears, round-eyed, upset by the fighting. Jennifer pours her a glass of milk.

"That wasn't how I imagined that going," Jennifer says to John, ruefully. "I thought -- I'd hoped you'd say yes." She bites the inside of her cheek, eyes on the countertop Formica. "It's me, isn't it? And that's okay," she adds. She can hear John moving, opening the china cabinet, ripping the chip bag open. "You and me, we don't need to, I don't _mind_ if my boyfriend has a boyfriend. Or does that bother you?"

"Here you are, kiddo," John says, and sets a kid-sized bowl of chips in front of Madison. He takes one and crunches it down in two bites. "We're not fighting," he adds, ducking a little to catch Madison's eye. Jennifer thinks she should have realized Madison might worry. But bedside manner has never been her strong suit. "No one here's mad at anyone. We're just kind of. . . confused."

"Uncle Rodney kissed you _and_ Auntie Jennifer," Madison says. She gives John a very grown-up look of disapproval. "That's pretty gay."

Jennifer cannot believe that Jeannie's daughter talks like that. She opens her mouth to protest, but John's already on it.

"You know what gay means, right?" John asks, pulling a chair around and sitting in it backwards.

Madison rolls her eyes, and Jennifer thinks terrible things about _kids these days_. "Boys who get married to other boys."

"So what does _pretty gay_ mean?" John asks. Madison shrugs and grabs a handful of chips. "Usually it means stupid. Like how _throwing like a girl_ implies girls suck at sports and being a girl is bad. I don't think girls are bad or being gay is stupid, myself."

"My mom said Uncle Rodney's marrying Jennifer," Madison says, with solemn finality, like a judge. "Can I watch TV?"

"No," John says, easy. "But I might let you watch _a show_. TV guide's --"

"I _know_ ," Madison half-shouts, and runs off to fetch it.

"Wow." Jennifer grins. "Since when are you good with kids?"

John looks at her just long enough to give her a smile and a flick of his eyebrow. "I just pretend she's one of my Marines. You should see us doing push-ups before breakfast."

Madison thunders back in, the magazine flapping. She navigates the pages expertly, and dashes back out a minute later to catch the last twenty minutes of Pokemon. John sighs and gets up, collecting the dirty dishes and taking them over to shove in the dishwasher.

"Were you asking for just, you guys wanted to try it sometime?" John says diffidently, and Jennifer's so twitchy that it takes her a minute to decipher the question, wondering what _it_ is.

When she gets it, she shakes her head. "We wouldn't do that to you," she says, trying to sound sincere. "We were talking about moving to the next level, about commitment, living together, and, well. Between me and you I think Rodney's been half-waiting for you for years. He didn't want to -- not without you."

John crosses his arms. "That's okay with you." He sounds like he doesn't think so.

"John," she says. He jerks, a little, at his name. "I'm a grown woman, making my own decisions, here. I see. . . people die, all the time, and I can't understand -- if you can be happy, and be loved, I believe you should take that. No matter what form that love comes in."

John nods, tipping his head sideways. Jennifer wishes she had the right to touch him; he is holding himself together with pride and stubbornness, she thinks. "It's not you," John says finally, grudgingly. He rolls one hand out, a dropping motion. "If it all falls apart, I lose everything," he says.

Jennifer takes a deep breath, swallowing down all the empty reassurances that rise up. She's strong enough to answer truthfully. "That's a legitimate fear," she admits. John makes a face that's all twitches and eyebrows; sometimes he really does look like a Muppet in distress. It's kind of endearing. "That's something we need to talk about, all three of us. Rodney's scared of losing you, I think," she adds. "And I feel out of my depth when you two draw on five years of friendship -- you finish each other's sentences _all_ the time." She shrugs. "Because there are risks, we shouldn't try?"

John shakes his head, then looks down. "I should go talk to Rodney." Jennifer can hear him, out with Madison, disparaging the superpowers of the Pocket Monsters.

" _We_ should," Jennifer corrects. She steels herself, but asks anyway: "Can I have a hug? I'm shaking." She holds out her hands to demonstrate. Madison's glittery nail polish sparkles like stars.

John's hugs are infamous on Atlantis; first-formal-dance awkward, stiff and off-putting, laughed about when he's not around. Jennifer gives him points for stamina, though. Once John has taken a few deep breaths, he shifts his hands from her shoulders to the middle of her back and holds on for the long haul. Jennifer leans her head against his chest and closes her eyes.

"You could just say if you don't want me around," Rodney announces, and John goes stiff, head coming up, hands flying away so fast Jennifer feels a chill where they'd been.

Jennifer keeps her hand on John's waist and reaches out to Rodney, reeling him in. She kisses him on the cheek and then on the mouth, and then turns to kiss John on the cheek and, after a brief conversation via eyebrows, on the mouth (chaste and quick), and then gives John her best authoritative stare until he ducks his head and brushes his mouth over Rodney's cheek.

"That's it?" Rodney protests. "We're finally at the stage where there can be kissing, and that's all I get?"

"In your sister's kitchen, _babysitting_ , yeah," John says. It sounds like he's barely hold back a _duh_.

Rodney glares; John holds his ground. "Fine," Rodney says, sounding a little vindictive. "Then you can cook dinner and take care of the bedtime routine while you bask in the warm glow of your celibate virtue."

John, surprisingly, makes really good pizza. He mixes the dough from scratch and lets Madison help him stretch it out. They pile on the vegetables and the vegan Italian sausage, and Jennifer realizes she's _starving_. She eats three slices and burns her fingers on the cheese.

She and Rodney wash up and get into pyjamas while John's doing a dramatic reading from one of the Magic Treehouse books, and John joins them in the living room when Madison's dozing off. They watch a couple episodes of The Office because John is, apparently, kind of addicted, and then they go upstairs to bed.

John's been staying in the storage-slash-guest room, but Rodney pushes him down the hall to the master bedroom and John doesn't argue. Jennifer tugs his flannel shirt off and hangs it on the back of the desk chair, and John pulls off his jeans and his socks, and then they all get in bed together. It's really, really weird.

Jennifer had pictured Rodney being in the middle, but Rodney gestures for her to get in on John's other side. Maybe he's worried that John will leave.

Jennifer doesn't know what to do with her hands.

"I've never," John says, raspy and tense, "been in a threesome before."

Rodney says, "Same"; Jennifer says, "Really?"

Her and her big mouth. She can feel both of them turning to look in her direction in the dark.

"I used to mess around with my roommate and her girlfriend," Jennifer says, and can't resist adding, "It was fun, she had a bunch of great toys. Hey -- we should go toy shopping while we're on Earth."

"Well, I feel old," Rodney says, after a bit of a pause.

"I knew she was kinky." John sounds smug. "She's already had me on my knees. There was penetration involved."

"That wasn't me," Jennifer protests. She puts her hand on John's stomach in apology anyway. The scar where the tentacle punched through him is deep; sliding her hand under his shirt, the ball of her thumb fits in the scar neatly. Rodney's looking for the scar as well, and she guides his fingers to the right spot. John's breathing has turned harsh.

"Huh," Rodney says, his fingers taking a careful survey. "Well. The next time will be better."

"The next time I'm on my knees?" John asks, and maybe it's because of the dark, or maybe he's finally starting to believe, but his tone's casually seductive.

"Yes," Rodney says. "That and. . . the other."

John cracks up at that. "We are so _bad_ at this," he manages to get out, and then Jennifer hears him kiss Rodney, wet and sloppy, the breath catching in John's throat in a way that sounds really turned on.

"Damn," Rodney says. "We really can't, not with Madison -- "

"Told you so," John says, and settles back. After a second, he stretches his arm out along the pillow, inviting Jennifer to put her head on his shoulder. She does, and John brushes her hair off her neck, settles his hand on her shoulder. Rodney's doing that thing he does, twitching his arms and legs in an attempt to find the perfect position for sleep, until John finally mutters, "McKay," and does something with his free hand that makes Rodney still immediately.

Jennifer yawns and lets herself sleep. She dreams about riding a train, for some reason, and wakes up with a snap, realizing that she stole the blanket and Rodney is snoring and John's curled up at the foot of the bed with his head on her knee, the only part of him under the covers. She can't figure out why she's awake, until she spots Madison standing in the doorway, clutching a battered stuffed rabbit. The bedside clock says five-thirty. She'd like to sleep a bit longer.

Jennifer holds the edge of the blanket up invitingly. "Having trouble sleeping?" she asks, and Madison snuggles right in with her, making sure the rabbit has a spot on the pillow.

"I was lonely," Madison says. "And Uncle Rodney's nose is too loud."

Jennifer reaches over to poke Rodney until he harrumphs and snorts and goes quiet. "There," she says, but Madison is already asleep.

Jennifer closes her eyes and follows suit.

.: .: .: .: .: .: .: .:  
the end  
:. :. :. :. :. :. :. :.


End file.
